The invention pertains to an animal waste pickup device that can be used in an easy procedure and in a completely sanitary manner. Pet owners and other observers are quite familiar with city and other local ordinances that require pet owners, who take their pets for walks, to pick up the pet's or animal's dropping such as feces to keep the environment in a sanitary condition. This ordinance, including common sense, applies to public properties as well as private properties. With the increased public concern over sanitation and a cleaner environment many municipalities have required that dog owners clean up after the animals have defecated on public properties. Although this is more pleasant for the public, it leaves the dog owner with an extremely unpleasant task. Many different scooping devices have been provided to hold a bag open while the feces are scraped or scooped therein. Various devices are known to accomplish the above mandate. It is known to use plastic gloves that are worn on the hand which simply pick up the droppings and by inverting the glove or by stripping the glove off the hand to invert the same, the dropping can be disposed of in a sanitary manner. Others simply carry a small shovel and a bucket or similar container to accomplish the same task as noted above. Then, there are other more complicated devices which accomplish the pick up and disposal of animal droppings in a completely sanitary manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,082 describes a device which accomplishes the above noted task. The implement described in the above noted patent consists of an elastomeric band to automatically close over the mouth of a flexible wrapper which is operated by two side plates that will swing inwardly at their bottoms to thereby grab the flexible wrapper having the animal dropping therein, to keep it therein and to thereafter dispose of the same, all in a sanitary manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,537 shows a similar device. This patent discloses a device which also uses a pair of jaws that are pivotally attached to one end of a long handle. An elongated sleeve is connected to the jaws around the handle. When the jaws are locked open, a bag clip engages the closed end of an ordinary thin plastic bag while the open end of the bag is everted over the edges of the jaws. To pick up the dog feces, the user positions the open bag over the waste, makes jaw contact with the ground, rotates the sleeve to unlock a sliding motion and moves the sleeve downward on the handle. This closes the jaws and encloses the waste within the bag to be disposed of at a later time and in a sanitary manner.